Lessons Learned from Early Childhood Development Center: A Nursing Education Institution in a University

Abstract

The lessons learned from the Early Childhood Development Center, a nursing education institution  in a university, was a part of  the lessons learned from child  care centers  under the nursing education institutions in Thailand. The purpose of this descriptive research was to overview the practice of  the Early  Childhood Developmental Center of Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University in order to reflect  the input, process and outcomes. Sample were  1 administrator, 18 caregivers, 5 faculties and 20 parents whose children attended this center. Data were collected by both quantitative and qualitative methods using self-administrative questionnaires, group interview and group discussion. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze quantitative data and content analysis was used for qualitative data.

The results indicated keys successful factors which can divide into 3 aspects as input, process and outcomes. The input factors included having a pediatric nurse as the administrator, well educated and experienced caregivers, adequate budget support from faculty. The process factors were having a guideline for child health promoting practice, child health assessment tool, the system and continuing development of personnel and the integration of research, teaching  and academic service . The outputs were optimal growth and development of children, many researches were developed ,  using as a learning resource center  for promoting early childhood  health, various of health promotion activities and   parents satisfaction  in  the provided service.

This lessons learned reflect the successful factors of early child health promotion in child care centers. This derived knowledge can be used a model for other institutes or child care centers to develop child health promoting  practices  in the  centers and to develop political recommendations. The suggestions from the study should be  taken  into the consideration of the administrator, especially, the preparation of young caregivers, establishment of network with communities and development of a early childhood research unit.